News and information about bendable devices

Category Archives: Smartphone

After Samsung released the Galaxy S6 dual edge, public has a wonderful reaction and embrace the dual edge device with interest. Samsung is the first producer of a smartphone with curve side, first of it being the Galaxy Note EDGE. Note EDGE has acquired a lot of fans for its interesting design and now is the time for Galaxy S6 edge to do that. And is doing!

The next step is the bendable device and many rumors said that the 2016 will be called for Samsung the bendable Samsung year. Galaxy S7 could feature a full bendable body and to begin a new smartphone era. As we can see in the present the technology is developed for flexible display, CPU, and flexible battery, all that we need is to be putted all into a flexible body.

As we already know, Samsung has the necessary technology and is working at a fully flexible prototype. If we take a look at the Samsung flexible patent, we can get a conclusion for the next Galaxy device. A foldable display is using the OLED(organic light emitting diodes) technology and until now, on the market has been shown a lot of flexible, bendable and rollable prototypes.

Samsung Youm technology is a mystery now, Samsung using for new devices AMOLED technology like the Galaxy S6.

Once with Samsung and LG flexible displays appear on the market, in concepts and prototypes, a new concept rises on the web. Apple iPhone bendable device seems to be rendered in a strange form which imitate one Samsung concept from the past. The iPhone concept that I will show you is composed of three parts. The first part is the motherboard, which contain the CPU, RAM and sensors. The second part is divided into two parts which compose the flexible display. iPhone concept flexible display could be bent at the middle of the entire display and transformed into a piece similar to a wallet.
What is a flexible display and in which stadium is the actual technology?
A flexible display is that kind of display which allow the user to bend it and roll it without damaging any inside component of the display. Until now, Samsung and LG show us some prototypes of the future displays. Samsung shows us the Samsung Youm a flexible display with these properties and LG showed the LG Chem.
LG Chem has an increased bending radios to 30 mm a huge angle of bending that eliminates the risk of the display shattering when high force is applied. For this technology, LG relinquishes the conventional glass display and adopt a new technology of plastic display. Advantages of the new plastic based OLED panel are that are more efficiency, more brightness, and low power consumption. LG plastic OLED is 60lm/W efficiency, CRI over 85, has a 3000K color temperature and 75lm brightness.
LG also announced the mass production of this panel for July 2015.
Samsung Youm is also a flexible display showed up in January 2013. Samsung flexible display prototype is able also to be curved and bent without damaging the initial form and components of the display. Youm has been also used in an early form of the first Samsung device released in October 2013, the Samsung Galaxy Round.
Galaxy Round has a curved display 5.7 inches Full HD and a 400 mm curvature radius. A Youm panel is produced with encapsulation technology.

About the Apple flexible display, we know that they already have a patent for this type of display and will use the first time a flexible display to replace the physical buttons on sides with virtual buttons. Virtual buttons with the main display will form the entire display of the device.
But, with this new concept, Apple must develop a good method to flex the two equal part of the display without any damages of the display function.

The two biggest Korean smartphone producers, Samsung, and LG are developing different technologies at the moment. While LG has a better flexible device than Samsung, LG G-Flex and G-Flex 2, the attention seems to be directed to transparent screens. Transparent screen is not a new technology and it has been showed many times in prototypes and other concepts. At the moment, LG and Samsung hold 50% of the display market.
LG flexible display seems to be more developed, and G-Flex 2 has acquired more public than Samsung Galaxy Round. With all of this, Samsung continues the development of flexible display and according to a Korean report, Samsung will release next year the first foldable smartphone. Today, Samsung show us just two steps from the number of four big steps for a complete foldable device. If we take a look at the Galaxy Round we could identify the first two steps, curved display and bent the display. Next two hardest steps are foldable and rollable.

Those last two steps are the hardest part of the future Samsung device and the most interesting part. Galaxy Round use ITO(iridium tin oxide) which offers a fixed degree of bent while a foldable display is like a piece of paper, that’s meant that you could roll and roll and after that the entire display to function like in the beginning without malfunctions.

LG release its first transparent display in 2014 using OLED technology. The most interesting thing about this 18-inch display is that is rollable. That means LG has the ability to minimize the display and transform it into a smartphone display. LG Transparent and rollable display have an HD resolution 1200 x 810 and almost one million mega-pixels. This kind of display can be rolled to a radius of 3 cm without ulterior malfunctions.
The most expected device at the moment is the rollable smartphone and seems that LG has the display technology while Samsung press release announces a bendable device next year.

Well, everybody heard about flexible display until now and many of us has a device with a flexible screen like a wearable device or a smartphone. Term of flexible display appeared with many years ago, in 1974 when Nicholas K. Sheridon a Xerox PARC employee made the first flexible electronic paper display. Sheridon technology has been dubbed Gyricon and was able to mimic the properties of a normal paper. Gyricon has been grown and in 2003 Gyricon LLC was formed as a Xerox subsidiary to commercialize the new technology. Gyricon has a short life unfortunately and in 2005 Xerox closed it.

After Xerox, a new company formed by HP and ASU start to develop the flexible technology at Arizona, USA. The name of the project was called ASU Flexible Display Center. ASU received huge funds from Army Research Lab to develop a new e-paper technology and a new prototype has been released one year later. After a while, the project has been transformed in a simple way to make thinner and lighter displays.

Another time another producer.
German producer Plastic Logic with the factory in Dresden developed and manufacture monochrome and color plastic flexible displays. German producer displays could have various sizes and are still used in wristwatches, wearable devices and recently in the automotive market. Technology used by the German producer is OTFT (organic thin film transistor). The advantage of this technology is that the main material is plastic and not include glass. This offers a high resistance making them unbreakable. Also, this technology could offer a thinner display than the glass-based display and low power consumption.

In 2004, a Canadian team developed PaperWindows. This prototype is the first bendable paper computer and Organic user interface (OUI). An OUI display is a flexible multi-shape display. The great ability of an OUI display is that can change its forms passively or actively upon analog inputs. In May 2010, has been announced the PaperPhone produced by Human Media Lab in partnership with ASU Flexible Display Center. PaperPhone is called the first flexible device(smartphone) with electrophoretic technology(flexible display).

After all of these prototypes, bigger producers announce the interest for electronic paper development. Some of the are LG Electronics and Sony Electronics.
One of the most discussed device using e-paper technology from Sony is the FES watch. This device is using the e-paper technology and weights only grams. Also the battery life is amazing, more than 60 days. Is like you have a Nokia 1100 and you forget to charge it more than a week and talking and talking and the battery life is great. Sony Flexible electronic paper display prototype creates also many articles and rumors.
Sony has also started a project with Riken and developed a rollable display with just 0.35 mm thick and a resolution of 79dpi. This project was created that time for the TV displays and smartphones.LG electronic paper has been announced in 2012 with 6 inch display size(diagonal) and a better resolution of 1024 x 768 (XGA) resolution. Technology used is TFT electronic display and weight only 14 grams with just 0.7 mm thickness. The advantages of this new technology is that can be dropped from 1.5 meters and no resultant damage, being also an unbreakable display.

Another announcement comes in 2010 from another big Korean producers, Samsung about the development of a new flexible display with another technology. The prototype has been presented at CES 2011 as a 4.5 inches flexible AMOLED display. The first Samsung device using a flexible display was released on 8 October 2013 featuring a 5.7 inches curved display. Galaxy Round was only 7.9 mm thick and weighed 154 grams. Samsung released this device as something new and special, but the success wasn’t as they wish. The curve on the long side of the device makes it a little bit strange ant the public was skeptic. Probably a design like LG Flex could acquire more adepts.
As we can see technology evolve quickly and devices are transformed into curve devices(TVs, smartphone, gadgets). Curved TVs are fascinating and offer new viewing experiences with the actual technologies.
Which can be the next technology used for a fully flexible display in the near future? A good question and an unknown answer.

Philips Fluid concept has been created by a Brazilian designer and is designed to be wear like other smaller devices from the Android Wear class. The name of Fluid comes from the design particularities to be bent and worn as a bracelet. To be worn as a bracelet, Philips Fluid phone has a flexible display and also, a flexible battery made by many smaller batteries assembled together to form a complete powerful battery. Philips Fluid offer a higher mobility than other smartphone being able to be worn on your hand. The most enthusiasts come from the sports area. They can wear the device bended on the hand and forget the “big pocket” problem.

Technology used for the display is a flexible OLED display. Inside the device must be used small and flexible components to permit the bracelet to be bend safely without damaging the electrical inside components. The OLED technology is evolved in the present and the probability of a bracelet-phone is imminent. Looking in the past, flexible display technology has been quickly developed and has been shown on the market in different devices like Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, LG G-Flex, some curved smartwatches and more.
As we see the technology development, the Philips Fluid phone could become reality is a short period. Imagine that you are running with your 5 inches device in your pocket. Your pocket will jump up and down at every step and more than that could jump out of your pocket. With a device like Philips Fluid just forget this problem and take your device in your hand as a bracelet.

After the most waited Samsung device has been released, Galaxy S6 Edge, many Apple lovers started talking about the form, design and shapes. The new Edge design is ugly, uncomfortable and other many things. Galaxy S6 Edge has been released this month and gains a lot of Android fans. The new device has a beautiful design and the dual-edge screen is absolutely glamorous. More than that, Galaxy S6 curved display is the best display mounted on a smartphone ever! With a 5.1 inches, S6 has a 71.7% screen to body ratio which makes it more interesting than any other smartphone.

Samsung chooses for display protection to use Gorilla Glass 4 which protect the flat part and also the curved screen from the left and the right part. The amazing resolution, 1440 x 2560 pixel(~577 PPI pixel density) offer a high video quality. More than that, Samsung choose to use their own CPU, the Exynos 7420, a quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex A53 and a quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex A57, a powerful CPU and a low-battery drain.
Also, discussion about the non-removal battery like the Apple device has, is a subject of discussion and the missing slot card also. These two options are important for every user but are not so bad that you can not change the battery or extend the internal memory. As an alternative for the 16 GB memory device are many cloud solutions with free storage space.
A 16 Megapixel camera is a good option for Samsung with 2988 x 5312 pixels and optical stabilization. Galaxy S6 has a quick camera response and a high-quality pictures and video record. Other options are listed on the producer website but are common with the Galaxy devices excepting the fingerprint sensor and the Samsung Pay(PayPal, Visa and MasterCard certified).

Recently Apple released a new patent for the next iPhone device which is designed without buttons on the left and the right part. But what should we think? The Apple lovers will quit Apple because of these? I don’t think so, they will find that Apple patent is amazing and will make their loved device be awesome. What a good joke!
The future Apple device seems to feature a “side wall display” which will include one or more flexible layers covered with clear glass or plastic. So, Apple will use a flexible display for their next product and also will include virtual buttons. Up here, confort technology Apple will use is similar to Samsung and will make the device similar to Galaxy S6 device. The only difference seems to be the metal frame of Apple. The frame will keep the Apple trend and will not let the main display to interact physical with the Edge display like Samsung has. The non-removal battery and the missing slot card will still be on the next devices.
Now is the time to see the differences and similarities about future Apple device and Samsung Galaxy S6. Both has/will have non-removal battery, no memory slot card, Edge display. Well, discussions are useless with these similarities and make both devices to be similar.
The Apple fans now can stop criticism and embrace the reality. Can feel the Galaxy S6 Edges and think about their next Edge device from Apple.

A new smartphone could delight our glances. Vaio, the ex-part of Sony is presenting their first smartphone with more than decent specifications. Vaio is known about their good portable devices, Sony Vaio laptops. In the last years when the company was in a partnership with Sony they released a various model of Vaio devices with top specification and technology.

Vaio Smartphone

Now, after splitting of Sony, is the moment for Vaio to release their first smartphone device. Vaio phone has a simple design combining the matte black with the glass material from the rear body and the front body(display). Vaio phone has a 5 inches screen size which can be manageable with one hand. Inside the Vaio phone, we find quad-core CPU clocked at 1.2 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. The internal storage could be extended with a microSD card at 64 GB. Vaio designed the device to be used with a Micro SIM card, more popular than the Nano SIM. It has a non-removal battery with 2500 mAh wich can provide up to 800 minutes of continuous talk time and more than 500 hours of standby time. Vaio phone will run Android Lollipop 5.0, 32 bit.

Device weight about 130 gram and will have 71.3mm (W) x 141.5mm (H) x 7.95mm (D), and will be available in just one color, black. Communication chip will offer 3G and 4G/LTE speed running in 2000/1800/800MHz band.

Vaio 5 inches display will feature an HD resolution, 720 x 1280 thru its TFT IPS LCD. The main camera will be a 13 megapixel model and the selfie camera will be a 5 megapixel.

With no NFC chip, Vaio could lose in the new smartphone market, because will not be able to pay by phone, but as a consolation, it has a 4.0 Bluetooth connection for a low power consumption.